The second her body hit the concrete wall, the beast lunged again, not even giving her time to recover.
Even with her heightened vision, the thing looked like a blur of black limbs and exposed bone. Its ribcage jutted out like armor, warped and expanded around a torso that seemed to be too small for the body. Its head was half canine, half something worse. Jagged teeth spiraling outward like a wolf's skull flayed and stretched, its tongue split at the end and twitching like a parasite. Its shoulders were uneven, with one arm dragging like dead weight while the other flexed with unnatural strength.
It howled a deep sound that seemed to vibrate the very ground underneath its feet, and leaped at her again, trying to take advantage of its speed.
Seraphina's body was still buried in a crater of shattered concrete, snow settling into her hair as she lay there still.
And then she moved.
Not slowly, not like a human would be forced to do.
